Hello and welcome to The Marketing Blog. My name is Michael Fleischner and this blog has been developed to share my more than 14 years of Marketing experience with anyone interested in learning more about marketing or Internet marketing. The Marketing Blog markets marketing simple and covers all aspects of marketing with a particular focus on internet marketing.

Thursday, July 02, 2015

As digital marketing becomes more complex, the more difficult it becomes for businesses tomanage an effective budget. Spreading resources across every avenue of the industry is a difficult task, and it can lead to key areas being neglected. Why is it important to get campaigns right? In 2014 marketing budgets went up by 10% - by 2016 it’s expected to make up 35% of the average businesses’ budget. Maximizing your strategy for strong ROI is now all important, and understanding how to get a shrewd plan together should be at the center of any business plan. In this 8 point guide the vital tactics which can make a campaign work are explained. It’s an insight on how to spread a digital marketing budget across the right areas, ensuring the best chance of excellent ROI. 1. Get A Plan In OrderMany businesses (particularly start-ups) have a habit of launching into digital marketing campaigns without a thorough plan. The idea of winging it and expecting good results can betempting, but the fact is it is essential you work out what your objectives are.Promoting brand awareness and increasing conversion rates tend to be the key goals, but how do you intend to achieve this? Can it be managed on a long term scale? Who are you going to employ to make it happen? The questions can pile up, and there’s also the need to manage a budget between the likes of social media, PPC, and SEO. Knowing where your business needs to focus is the essence of a strong digital marketing plan, which means you need to understand your audience. 2. Research Your Industry One of the forgotten factors is not all businesses can work with SEO and PPC. Not everyone is always looking for the keywords you may want to rank for, meaning there is no point in funding a SEO campaign. Conversely, a PPC strategy won’t work if you have low margins –all this tends to do is lose you money.The solution to this is to understand your audience and get to know what your competitors are doing. Examine the market and your position in it – how authoritative do you genuinely see yourself? If you’re entering an established and competitive market, for example, then PPC is a great way to learn which keywords to focus on. In turn, this can shape your SEO efforts. 3. Get Your SEO StructuredCapturing key SERPs is what SEO is all about. SEO is more sustainable than PPC, the problem is the results take quite a while to show, and you run the risk of facing a Google penalty if you get it badly wrong (such as with Black Hat SEO – steer well clear of it). For start-up businesses Google uses a cautious tactic to wait and see how the new site develops. Many new businesses can fold and the site is essentially abandoned – if this isn’t your plan, get on with SEO before your launch: ensure your site is streamlined on a technical front, is mobile-friendly, and structure excellent on-site content. Off-site work is also vital – with online buzz around your business, the signals sent to Google will be positive and will assist your ranking. In the meantime, PPC can generate interest in your site whilst Google’s algorithms crawls your site and organic traffic builds up. 4. PPC Will Always Back You UpPPC is a safety net of sorts as it can be used to drive relevant traffic to your site. In moments of marketing uncertainty, turn to PPC – even a budget of $1,000 based around broad keywords can have significant results. This tactic can help you understand top-performing keywords and popular new ones (again, which comes in useful for SEO activities). However, do be aware if you’re a B2B company as competition is rife and prices can be extremely high. Respect your budget and see what you can achieve with it. 5. Take A Look Into PPC For MobileWith Google’s mobile algorithms now in place (benefiting sites with mobile-friendly sites), now is the time to capitalize on mobile marketing features. For mobile PPC, there are brilliant CTA options which come in particularly useful for lead generation. 6. Use The Power Of RemarketingSetting aside budget for remarketing is another essential tactic which, when deployed properly, can deliver great results. Your marketing efforts can’t always win over your audience, as many will visit your site, show some interest, but then leave.Remarketing is an unobtrusive way to get back into their field of vision – setting up tracking codes can ensure they return to your site with subtle imagery and clever wording. 7. Take To Content Marketing With A FlourishHaving good content is now more important than ever. Google’s algorithms will notice poor copy and send the site plummeting down SERPs - sculpting quality content through a White Hat SEO campaign can build a strong link catalog, boost your authority, and have a steady stream of CTA driven social media output going. 8. Recognize Key Social Media Tools Most businesses are on Facebook and Twitter – this is a given. However, many brands don’t put the effort in to taking advantage of other formats, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, and even the likes of FourSquare. YouTube, as an arbitrary example, offers an advertising format where companies can tap into utterly vast audiences. It remains largely underused by brands, so try setting aside some budget to get in front of a site which has a hundreds of millions of views a day. With its localized options and specific targeting services, you can effortlessly focus in on your demographic. Use This Handy 8 Point Guide To Keep Everything On TrackNow we’ve highlighted the areas to focus on, it’s time to take action and make sure your budget is spread over the most crucial areas of digital marketing. To get things moving you can:1. Identify if your business is better suited to SEO or PPC – if both, set aside your budget appropriately. 2. Setup a PPC campaign to identify keywords which and relevant to you and, importantly, convert.3. Take the data from this to develop your on-site SEO efforts.4. Set aside budget for off-site SEO/5. Begin a major PPC campaign to attract your target consumers.6. Monitor your progress in Google’s SERPs – perhaps subscribe to Moz to have detailed results of your search rankings. You can adjust your PPC expenditure based on the results, and focus your efforts on SEO areas which need work.7. Put in place a remarketing campaign which will boost your conversions. 8. Don’t forget about your mobile opportunities – accommodate your budget towards appealing to this vast audience. The award winning Soap Media is a digital marketing specialist from the UK. It has been delivering quality results since 2005.